Social Media Advertising When Marketing
Meets User Engagement
Social Media Advertising FAQs
Social media is one of the largest drivers of networking and communication that exists today. Your business should be part of the global impact of social media, too.
Social media connects the world, there’s no doubt about that. Social media really got started in the 1980s and 90s with outlets like LiveJournal, Friendster, and America Online—although some people may argue that Morse code was the true original social media. Heck, in 2006, MySpace was the most visited website in the world. Now, not even a full two decades later, MySpace is just an afterthought.
Contemporary social media has evolved into multi-purpose domains. People use social media channels for advice, communication, news, finding and making friends, and—a big one—connecting to brands.
By the end of this post, you will know the what, why, and how of social media marketing services. Having a social media marketing presence for your business is now an expectation. By using social media marketing services, you can not only be a social media participant, but also a leader in your field. Social media advertising has the power to increase your return on investment (ROI), make you an authority in your field, build relationships with your customers, and much, much more. Let’s get started!
What Is Social Media Advertising?
Social media advertising takes digital marketing to social media platforms in order to promote a business and gain an audience. But how?
When you develop a marketing strategy, you have certain goals that you wish to accomplish, some for general strategy and others that are unique to your business. Through social media advertising, you can accomplish both.
Social media advertising gives you the power to:
- Develop and establish your brand recognition
- Increase your audience awareness
- Increase ROI
- Have a positive impact on your search engine optimization (SEO)
- Generate leads
- Increase traffic
- Create a platform for direct communication with your audience members
The key element to social media marketing is knowing your audience. Each social platform has its own unspoken guidelines for communication. Once you hone in on your voice and brand, you can translate that to adhere to the needs of each social media community. Because different social platforms have different types of users, you can expand your audience, increase your connections, and ultimately drive more traffic to your website. You also have the chance to grow your brand by developing your story over your profiles.
Not quite sure what this means? Our social media marketing team here at Metric Marketing can break down the differences between social media marketing and digital marketing for you. Social media marketing services are a subcategory under the umbrella of digital marketing. It is simply one form of marketing yourself online, one that can be used to connect your various marketing techniques to each other.
Let’s take a look at the specifics on how social media marketing can be applied to your digital marketing strategy.
The Benefits of Advertising on Social Media
1. Increase Brand Awareness
Your brand is who you are as a company. It encompasses your entire personality and tells people what they’re getting out of interacting with you right from their first impression. Your brand identity is what personalizes your business. Your business is unique—establishing your brand helps people recognize that uniqueness.
Your brand is an essential element to the success of your business. It’s how you:
- Interact with your customers/audience
- Identify who you are in the world—both online and in-person
- Build trust and credibility
- Establish your mission and purpose that users can connect with
- Show your personality
Increasing your brand awareness means that users on social media will be able to recognize you, which means that there is the potential to build trust between you and your audience. The more your audience trusts you, the more loyal they will be to your brand, going to you for advice, products, and services that you provide because you have established a growing relationship.
Your brand is who you are as a business. So, why not let people know who you are!
Using social network advertising to increase your brand awareness places you in conversation with people who either:
- Do not initially know who you are/what your brand is, but may become loyal customers based on repetition, recognition, and trust; or
- Are already loyal customers who are aware of your brand—social network advertising allows you to continue strengthening these relationships
Loyal customers oftentimes become brand ambassadors simply by posting positive feedback and engaging with your brand on social media platforms.
2. More Opportunity to Get in Front of Targeted Users
A common misconception is that all you have to do on social media is post a tweet or picture every once in a while. This could not be further from the truth.
In order to be successful and get the most use out of your social media marketing services, you need to regularly reach a target audience who will most benefit from your services. Social media advertising takes:
- Research
- Intentionality
- Consistency
Getting in front of your target audience requires market research to know what types of content will be engaging for those who will partake in your products and services. If your online presence isn’t seen by those who will benefit, then you will not generate conversions.
You can strengthen your social media advertising by creating buyer personas to know exactly how you can reach the audience that needs to see your business. Through social media advertising, you can access your target audience by their specific attributes.
Understanding the metrics of social media allows you to create content that is personalized for your target audience, then promote your advertisements to the platforms they’re actually using. A social media advertising company knows how to analyze potential customers’ social media patterns and interests. With in-depth research and data-driven content creation, you will be able to reach your target audience through intentional social network advertising.
3. Build Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty refers to customers who continue to return to your business because they trust you as a company, and trust the products/services you provide. Many customers will also essentially advertise for you when you have established enough customer loyalty.
People who love your products will want other people to be aware of you because they want you to succeed. Customer loyally is mutually beneficial in this way: you provide a trusted service, your customers enjoy the product and promote your business. You can gain even more customers this way.
4. Source of Untapped Leads
As of January 2021, 4.2 billion people are active on social media. Of that astronomical amount of users, 295.48 million are social network users in the United States alone. 70% of Americans with Facebook accounts say that they use Facebook daily.
Although social media advertising requires research to reach your target audience, you may be surprised by how many users who are not in your buyer persona will still view your social media content. You never know, it may lead to a whole new customer—and customer base—that you weren’t expecting.
5. Score Repeat Purchases
Social media is one of the cost-effective ways of promoting your brand and products. You can advertise your brand in general or highlight specific products depending on what platform you use. In this case, buyers can keep returning, see a product they may need or want on your social media, and just like *that* you have repeat purchases! No additional work on your part required, just social media doing its own work for the growth of your business.
Types of Social Network Advertising
Social network advertising isn’t as simple as just making an occasional Instagram Story for your business. There are strategic ways to promote your business, using social outlets as a tool to perform other marketing tasks.
Paid Social Media Marketing Ads
Social media platforms are one of the best ways to engage with your customer base. By using social media, you can actually interact with your audience, personalizing your business and making your company seem a bit more “human” than just a website that sells products.
You can use social media to create and promote paid social media marketing ads. What does this mean, exactly? A paid advertisement opens you up to a world of research opportunities that reveal how your advertisement is performing. When done correctly and with the assistance of a social media advertising company, you can:
- View analytics on how multiple ads are performing
- See progress reports
- Monitor active ad campaigns
All of this information will contribute to the next steps in your marketing strategy. Based on data gathered from social campaigns, you can make informed decisions on what needs to change and how your paid advertising can be improved. You can also see what’s working and how well you’re doing on social!
A social marketing agency like Metric Marketing can help you create paid social media marketing ads by:
- Conducting research to formulate your target demographics
- Gaining a deeper understanding of how to use social media to engage with your target audience
- Analyzing your audience’s social media behavior
- Providing social marketing services such as graphic design and content creation to formulate the actual advertisements themselves
- Managing your social profiles, posting time, and online content
Social media paid promotion is a wonderfully efficient way to engage with your target audience and take full advantage of the opportunities social media platforms hold. Your social media presence helps drive your revenue. In order to do that efficiently and effectively, it is wise to invest in social media marketing services that make data-driven decisions for your marketing success.
Post Promotion
A promoted post is an option that Facebook provides that promotes your ad on the Facebook feeds of people who are in your target demographic. Using services such as post promotion can direct your business to the right eyes. Your content is able to reach your audience, and maybe audience members from new audience demographics.
Promoting your posts is a great way to spread yourself around the online space, increasing brand awareness and recognition. This, of course, can lead to lead generation!
If you have any questions about how post promotion works on any of the platforms you’re active on, reach out to us! We are a social media advertising company with the expertise to help you with post pushes.
Services for Social Advertising
Social advertising takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work to fully embrace the potential of social media marketing services. Here are some of the digital marketing tools you can utilize to promote yourself on social media. A full-service social media marketing company like Metric will be able to provide you with a comprehensive agenda to fully incorporate the following topics into your marketing strategy
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most prominent tools for both strengthening your brand recognition and building client relationships. You can send out either automatic or personal emails that contain advertisements, promotions, coupons, business updates, announcements, and any other information you think is pertinent to your audience.
Email marketing goes hand in hand with social marketing services because it is a way to directly communicate with your customers. It also provides insight on how well your marketing efforts are working. Are you reaching your audience? How is engagement reciprocated? Looking at your email marketing analytics will help you gauge where audience engagement is lacking and thriving.
In addition, similar to social media platforms, email marketing is relatively inexpensive when compared to paid social advertising—which does also utilize social media platforms, but in different ways as previously discussed. A targeted email campaign is cost-efficient and engaging, there is no doubt about it!
Brand Management
Social media brand management means actively cultivating your personality online over time. That being said, there is one crucial factor that brand management relies on: consistency.
By committing to social media brand management, you are taking the necessary steps to connect with your online audience, participating in direct communication and establishing who you are as a trusted, reliable brand.
A positive brand identity goes a long way when building trust with your customers and can lead to an increased ROI. But how do social media marketing services practice social media brand management? To answer that question, we first need to ask a few more questions about your business’s brand:
- Who is your target audience?
- What social media platforms does your target audience use?
- What do you wish to accomplish by using social media marketing services?
- For example, are you using social media platforms as a vehicle to sell your products? To reach a broader audience? Is it strictly for paid social advertisements? Maybe a combination of all?
- If you already have social media, who have you engaged with so far?
If you don’t know how to answer these questions, don’t fret. Metric Marketing is an online social media agency; we can help pick apart these questions to find your personalized social media marketing goals.
Back to the original question:
How does a social media marketing company practice social media brand management?
The quick answer: consistency. Every item listed below takes time and consistency to properly measure the metrics we collect, then implement as content on your feeds. As a company that provides social media advertising services, we:
- Work with you to find and develop your business’s personality, a.k.a., your company’s brand
- Create logos, graphics, and visual tools to harvest your brand—when people see your logo or colors associated with your brand, they should be able to recognize your company
- Build your social media profiles
- Create consistent content that reveals and builds your brand identity over time, establishing your brand online
- Conduct in-depth SEO research to create content that will generate audience engagement
- Create a buyer persona
- Engage with those within your buyer persona through analytical research
- Measure the results of content on your feed and paid advertisements
- Make informed decisions based on social metrics
*Pro-tip: It’s a common misconception that your logo is your brand. Read here to learn the key differences between your logo and brand identity
Social media brand management takes dedication. It is also a fun way to get to the root of who you are as a company. Your brand has a foundation; with consistent social media marketing services, you can see how your brand evolves over time. With social media, your brand can flourish and grow!
Content Writing
Here at Metric Marketing, we live by the statement that content is king. Content writing comprises anything that involves, well, writing! It’s also extremely important to write with intentionality. Your industry and competitors are constantly moving forward; your content needs to be up to date and offer the most beneficial information to your customers. Providing relevant content on topics your audience is searching for is key to earning the engagement and customer relationships you seek.
Regardless of the medium—whether you are writing a blog that you will promote on Facebook, making a monthly newsletter, or creating daily posts on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram—your content must be engaging, thoughtful, and intentional.
Powerful content writing:
- Establishes and develops your voice through the words you communicate with
- Tells your audience who you are and what makes your brand unique
- Shows that you are an authority in your field by providing insights on topics that your audience needs and wants—content establishes you as a credible voice, thus building trust
- Appeals to your audience—the small engagements that can happen over social media marketing can make deep, lasting impacts
Content writing is used to directly correspond with your audience. It is used to nurture relationships and grow your brand. Your online presence relies on content writing because you need content to be active on social platforms.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-per-click advertising, also called PPC advertising, is one of the most efficient ways to get results fast.
PPC advertising means only paying for your online advertisement when someone actually clicks on it. You can supplement your growth by using PPC. Let’s breakdown how this works at Metric:
- We conduct research to find how best to reach your target audience
- Our graphic design and content teams create an advertisement
- We put your advertisement out onto social media platforms
- Someone clicks on that ad, which brings them to your site
- Our PPC expert provides you with timely updates about how your advertisement is performing
- From there, we work with you to make decisions on how to continuously improve your return on ad spend
Using PPC advertising can start the marketing funnel and lead to an influx of customers. If you make more from your advertisements then you spend on them, the real question is why not create PPC advertisements?
For clarification: it’s important to note that digital marketing takes time. Having an already established brand and marketing strategy is key for the success of PPC social media marketing. PPC is a tool to reach your audience quickly. If you have the capacity and budgeting tools to implement PPC, it’s a great method to use. If you are wondering whether PPC is right for you and your company, reach out to us. We have in-depth knowledge about social media advertising services—especially PPC—and we can review PPC with you and discuss the next steps if you think it’s right for you!
Video Production
As YouTube is the second largest social media platform (behind Facebook), it’s no surprise that video production should be a key player in your social media marketing. YouTube has two billion monthly active users and generates a revenue of $19.8 billion. Video production shows your audience who you are with visuals and audio. You can use video production to capture your audience’s interest. Video production ideas includes:
- A day at the office
- Behind-the-scenes
- Tutorials
- Promotional videos
- Interviews
- And more!
Engage with your audience using this growing medium to stay ahead of your competitors.
Advertising Social Networks
Nowadays, there seems to be a new social media platform popping up everywhere you look. With so many platforms, how do you choose which ones to focus on?
Best Uses of Social Media Advertising
Sure, you can have a profile on every single social media outlet, but each platform requires its own social media marketing strategy. This can be time-consuming, which is why it’s probably more beneficial to focus your efforts on where your social media marketing will make the most positive impact on your business’s success.
Here are some starting questions for choosing which social media platforms to participate on:
- How easy is it to streamline my followers back to my website?
- How can I use this platform to learn more about my target audience?
- Who will be most engaging with my business on this platform?
- What are my conversion goals?
- How will my PPC advertisements perform?
- How can I best manage my brand on this platform?
- Which platform is most economical for me to invest in?
Choosing the best platforms for investing your time, effort, and money will get you stellar results.
Facebook Advertising
Facebook is hands down the most popular social media platform today. Globally, Facebook has more than 2.85 billion monthly active users. It’s a platform for businesses to create advertisements, events, job opportunities, and pages and profiles.
Pros & Cons of Facebook Advertising
Facebook for Business is one of the most comprehensive platforms to conduct your social advertising on, and it comes with a whole lot of benefits.
Creating a business page for your company is relatively simple. You can also easily post links directly to your website, which drives traffic to your Facebook page. If used correctly, Facebook is also very customer-oriented. You can reach a lot of audience members and create Facebook posts that relate to their needs.
Facebook provides Audience Insights so that you can collect information about the people in your community and their purchasing patterns so you can best create online shopping experiences for your audience. Audience Insights provides information like:
- Facebook usage
- Purchasing behavior and methods
- Customer location
- Demographics
- Page likes
You can also get Page Insights, which give you analytics about your actual business page itself.
Like all platforms, Facebook has its cons as well. Because Facebook creates a space to frequently engage with customers, it regularly demands your attention. Facebook is popular, which means it’s saturated with businesses like yours, many of whom are your competitors. If you are not constantly active on Facebook, that allows competitors to get a leg up on Facebook’s benefits.
Facebook is also user-friendly with phones. This is definitely a pro but can have adverse effects if you don’t make sure that your business outside of Facebook is mobile-friendly. If it is not, then Facebook might lead to a dead-end for your marketing funnel.
LinkedIn Advertising
LinkedIn is the social media marketing platform for your professional needs. Launched in 2002, LinkedIn is one of the earliest social platforms that is still a leader in the social media market today. It is the best way to network your business, particularly with other companies and employees. It is much more professional than other platforms, meaning you have to adhere to the social standards and conduct business in a more professional way than you might otherwise do while trying to connect with potential customers.
Pros & Cons of LinkedIn Advertising
If you are a B2B based company, LinkedIn is the place for you. Because LinkedIn has a company-based audience, you can more readily reach your target demographic of other businesses than you would with platforms that focus on B2C interactions. Connecting with leaders in your industry through posts, comments, or messages on LinkedIn increases your chances of being taken seriously and getting a response.
However, as a con, LinkedIn has about 800 million users. Though this is still a significant amount of people, it is much less than leading social platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. You may also have less interaction with customers on LinkedIn.
YouTube Advertising
As discussed above, YouTube is one of the leaders in the social media industry. If you invest in social media marketing services that provide video production, you can flourish on this platform.
Pros & Cons of YouTube Advertising
YouTube is a platform that allows for major creativity. You can create content about your business, the services and products you provide, and tips and tricks that your audience members will want.
After your videos are uploaded, there is a second huge perk YouTube brings for your marketing success. Your YouTube videos can show up in Google Search Results. This benefits your SEO and business’s traffic.
However, one of the biggest cons is that YouTube demands professionalism, or at least it does for your business to be a success. Videos need to be of high quality, with full sound editing and color correction. Investing in high-quality video content can get expensive. If you have the budget for it, though, it can be worth it. If not, uploading low-quality videos can actually hurt your business, as they will seem unprofessional and outdated.
Twitter Advertising
Twitter is a platform that all businesses and people can use. Whether your business is a Fortune 500 or a “Mom and Pop Shop,” Twitter really is for everyone.
Pros & Cons of Twitter Advertising
Twitter is one of the most accessible social platforms out there. You can easily engage in conversation threads. You can also reach a vast amount of people as your loyal customers retweet and quote what you’ve written, spreading your profile to all of the people that follow them, too!
The biggest con is the constraint on characters. You are allowed 280 characters in each post. This means content needs to be concise and to the point. In many ways, this can benefit your business, but it can also cause some strife when trying to communicate a longer message. Twitter also has fewer users than Facebook. There are about 73 million Twitter users in the United States as of July 2021. However, the concentrated audience can also be to your benefit if your main audience is most active on Twitter.
Pinterest Advertising
Pinterest is a remarkably beneficial social media outlet for sharing your products. If your industry calls for online shopping, Pinterest is the place to be.
Pros & Cons of Pinterest Advertising
One of the main pros of Pinterest advertising is the opportunity to spot emerging trends. You can follow influencers in your industry and see how you can provide relevant material.
Pinterest also provides the unique opportunity to literally see what your customers want. Through pins and profiles, your audience shows you what items they’re looking for, which in turn lets you know how to advertise to them. You can also use Pinterest to drive traffic to your actual website, gaining more traffic and exposing customers to your full product line.
Pinterest is also a perfect place to employ your social media brand management. Establishing your brand as an authority on Pinterest gives you a credible voice. As a business, you are also allowed to access insights on the amount views you have.
Pinterest does have its drawbacks, though. Many Pinterest boards are not business-oriented, meaning they are focused on lifestyles, and products that do get pinned there contribute to that lifestyle/interest. If your business is not lifestyle/interest-oriented, this means you will need to take creative approaches for presenting your products based on relevant topics, seasons, and trends.
TikTok Advertising
TikTok is growing—fast. TikTok has been downloaded over two billion times and ranks number seven on the list of most-used social media platforms. If you want to talk about good branding, TikTok has 89% recognizability for brand awareness.
Pros & Cons of TikTok Advertising
Similar to Facebook, TikTok offers the opportunity to grow your business on that platform. Unlike YouTube, TikTok does not demand professional quality video. You can upload videos from your phone that take minimal editing, although it is still a good idea to have high-quality content in general.
TikTok allows your business and brand to reach a large audience and allows those audience members to see your creativity. It can generate a significant impact on your return on ad spend. With constant automatic play, the chances of you reaching your audience is huge; they don’t have to click anything, they simply use that feature.
However, there are quite a few cons for using TikTok for your business. You have to track your own analytics, at least any that you wish to track for longer than 28 days. You also cannot easily link your website to your TikTok account. This means that the pipeline to increase website traffic is extremely limited.
Metric Marketing Social Media Services Pricing
The amount you invest in social media marketing services is what you get back in return. Social media marketing services for business are an investment, and one that requires careful consideration before you select a particular social media posting agency. If you are ready to take the leap and work with a digital marketing company that provides social media marketing services, contact us to discuss prices today!
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